Phl may rejoin ICC — PBBM

The Philippines is considering rejoining the International Criminal Court (ICC) five years after it had withdrawn due to opposition to the court's request to look into its anti-drug campaign, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Friday.

In a media interview in Taguig, Marcos acknowledged the House of Representatives' resolution urging the government to cooperate with the International Criminal Court's (ICC) investigation into the drug war.

"There is also a question, should we return under the fold of the ICC, so that's again under study. So we'll just keep looking at it and see what our options are," Marcos said.

While such measures are "not unusual," Marcos emphasized that jurisdictional issues and sovereignty concerns need to be addressed first.

Marcos added that it was not right for foreign bodies to determine who should be investigated or arrested.

"We have police, we have the National Bureau of Investigation, we have the Department of Justice. They can handle that job, and that's really where the conflict is," Marcos said.

Earlier this week, Vice President Sara Duterte urged the House of Representatives to honor Marcos' stance regarding the International Criminal Court's inquiry into the past administration's drug war.

"Given this clear standpoint, we urge the House to respect the position of the President, who is the chief architect of our foreign policy," said Vice President Duterte.

"The President has, likewise, affirmed that his opinion is based on the fact that the ICC ceased to have jurisdiction over the Philippines upon the effectivity of our withdrawal from the Rome Statute on 17 March 2019," she added.

Manila Representative Bienvenido "Benny" Abante Jr. lodged a resolution on Tuesday, urging the Marcos administration to collaborate with the ICC investigation.

Last October, lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc, France Castro of ACT Teachers Party-list, Arlene Brosas of Gabriela Party-list, and Raoul Manuel of Kabataan Party-list, similarly filed a resolution to that effect.

The Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2019 after then-President Rodrigo Duterte questioned the international tribunal's jurisdiction to look into a campaign against illegal drugs that resulted in thousands of deaths in the country.

This year, ICC denied the Philippine's request to end its investigation into Duterte's drug war. Marcos declared that he would stop communicating with the court in March following the ruling.

Right groups and the families of the dead celebrated the July decision by the ICC's appeals judges, who opened the door for an inquiry into the killings.